CCACE’s address to a HAGIS…

“I hope HAGIS can, indeed, become the ‘Chieftain o’ the cohort, rather that puddin’, race’,” said Ian Deary.

With CCACE co-author Chloe Fawns-Ritchie, he gave a keynote talk at the Healthy Ageing In Scotland (HAGIS): The Pilot Survey conference on Friday 8th December 2017.

Ian described the cognitive and personality data collected in the 1000+ people of the HAGIS Pilot Survey. “This part of the HAGIS survey was designed by me and Chloe in CCACE, and Chloe trained the testers,” said Ian. “From our initial analyses, the data are good in quality and quantity. For the conference, we concentrated on general cognitive function and neuroticism, and showed their distributions and widespread associations with life outcomes. I think even these initial results were very good evidence for including them in the full HAGIS survey, when it finds funders.”

With the USA, England, Northern and Southern Ireland, and many European countries already having their own longitudinal ageing studies, we all hope that Scotland won’t be far behind. “Scotland has a lot to offer with a new ageing cohort study,” said Ian. “With Professor David Bell’s (University of Stirling) impressive leadership, the wide range of ageing-relevant data in and representativeness of the Pilot Survey, and the possibility of widespread data linkage in Scotland, we say: ‘Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware… Gie us a (full-sized) HAGIS’!”.